Late Comedian Luis Martinez's Final Wish Comes True: Last Show To Hit The Big Screen

The last big stage show that Puerto Rican comedian Luis Martinez offered his public will be taken to the big screen, a dream the late actor never achieved before he died over the weekend. He was 51.

Producer Jose Dueño told EFE news agency on Monday that he plans to screen in movie theaters the show "Que Ojones," which Luis Raul presented onstage last Sept. 14 before a packed house of 17,000 people at San Juan's Jose M. Agrelot Coliseum.

Dueño said the show "was going to be the start of a Hollywood movie career" for Luis Raul, who died Sunday after 18 days in a San Juan hospital.

"It was beautiful that he made his farewell with one of his best shows," Dueño said.

The comedian had been suffering health problems since December, and in the last few days had agreed to be put on a respirator to try and speed up his recovery, but a kidney failure made his condition worse.

Dueño, who knew Luis Raul for some 30 years and considered him Puerto Rico's best stand-up comedian, plans to bring that historic performance to the big screen and wants to do it on March 6, the day the artist would have celebrated his 52nd birthday.

"I just helped him with his ideas. Working with him was one of the best experiences of my life," Dueño said about the comic whom Puerto Rico will commemorate starting Monday with three days of official mourning, decreed by Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla.

Martinez is to be cremated and in accord with his wishes, there will be no vigil, though in the coming days a religious ceremony is expected to be organized.